In StarCraft 2 multiplayer, what does the following message mean?
"Player is slowing down the game"
I've seen this pop up a few times recently and didn't know if it was something intentional the other player was doing or something like net or frame lag.

2 Answers
2

This is caused by the player not communicating with the server fast enough to keep up with the game info in "real time". It is most likely caused by connection issues, but a slow computer on a fast connection could also do it in some circumstances.

A slow computer can absolutely cause this problem. My computer is years old and SC2 runs well overall, but during big battles I sometimes see "your computer is slowing down the game" (and my friends see the same message reporting me). You can also see this if someone accidentally alt-tabs out of the game, and their computer lags for a few moments.
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WikwocketSep 14 '10 at 2:54

It means one (or more) of the players has too much latency. If this because too large the game is paused to let him catch up for up to maximal 60 seconds. After that the player is kicked from the game.

In 1v1 this means you would instantly win, so there's no benefit for players to purposely slow down the game

It's not just due to latency (see sjohnston's answer). Also, the "slowing down the game" issue is not always related to the 60-second game pause. I have seen each occur without the other happening. Slowdown may be related to CPU speed, and the pause may be due to an interrupted connection.
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WikwocketSep 14 '10 at 2:56

1

Well, technically it is due to latency, but that latency (to you, from the server's perspective) can be caused by a slow connection or an overloaded CPU/graphics card, or any other reason the game might not be able to respond as quickly as it should.
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BlueRaja - Danny PflughoeftSep 14 '10 at 15:07